This application relates generally to the field of radiometers, and specifically to low temperature radiometers of low manufacturing cost.
Space travel may require high-performance, large scale cryogenic systems such as those sunshields and cold instruments of a space telescope. Testing these systems is problematic due to their size and low heat loads allowed. The heat loads may be greatly influenced by non-ideal black-body characteristics of a test chamber, and stray heat from warmer portions of the system and ground support equipment. Accordingly, a low temperature radiometer configured to identify sources of stray heat and further configured to make non-contacting thermal emission measurements is provided herein.